"Certainly when you're playing a team that's coming off a tough loss, you know that they'll be ready, especially when they're opening up at home on a Monday night in a prime-time game," he said. "We have a ton of respect for the team that we're getting ready to play, and certainly going on the road on a Monday night, we understand the challenges with that."

Payton's words carried the complimentary tone smart teams adopt toward all opponents. However, the Saints, when they travel to the West Coast this weekend, will be lucky - and perhaps unlikely - to encounter the same 49ers that traveled up the West Coast last weekend.

San Francisco Coach Mike Singletary wants the Saints playing against a very different team, and he tried to ensure that would be the case by holding one team meeting in Seattle right after the Seahawks routed them, and another when the team plane landed in the Bay City.

Whether that move pays dividends remains to be seen. Singletary said he "doesn't know about all that," when asked if he tried to sting the 49ers' pride. His goal was getting some clarity between himself and the players.

"As a head coach, I think it's important to have the pulse of your team, and for me, things were addressed after the game," Singletary said Thursday in a conference call. "I just wanted to make sure that when we got back, that everybody understood what I said and exactly what I mean, so we were on the same page. I don't like gray. I let you know exactly what I'm saying and what I mean."

Could he provide some inkling of what he said and what he meant?

"Absolutely not," he replied.

Presumably that means either Singletary's choice words for his team were not fit for consumption, or that he prefers the Saints not have a window into his organization's thinking.

Forty-niners quarterback Alex Smith hinted it might have something to do with the former.

"Not a shocker," Smith said, when asked about the meetings and Singletary's speeches. "We were all upset. I think the expectation level that we had and to go out, the way the game worked out, I think everyone was pretty upset afterward."

Saints players said they have a pretty solid idea of what the 49ers and their coaches are thinking: namely, that they are facing their home opener on "Monday Night Football" against the defending Super Bowl champions - and staring the possibility of a season in which they had high hopes instead starting 0-2, both losses in conference.

"You put a lot of significance on every game, but definitely a game after a loss, because you want to correct mistakes that maybe got you beat the week before," Saints quarterback Drew Brees said. "Plus you always talk about how great teams don't lose two in a row."

Great teams, however, routinely win two or more games in a row, and the Saints players, coming off an unusually long break after their 14-9 victory over Minnesota more than a week ago, stressed the same theme they have since they opened training camp in August: They are trying to earn recognition as a great team.

Brees and tight end Jeremy Shockey offered a version of that focus. In Brees' case, he gave a clear answer to how a team avoids the pitfall of overlooking an opponent."You find a way to make each game the most important game of the season," he said.

Shockey declared the phrase "trap game" distasteful, and when asked about the prospect of playing in California on a Monday night and then facing a short week with a divisional opponent - Atlanta - coming to New Orleans, Shockey treated the question as if it had been asked in a foreign language.

"We actually have a long week," he said, maintaining his focus on the present. "We're not thinking about Atlanta at all. We're just thinking about this game."

The Saints' track record of professionalism and accomplishment speaks for itself in thatrespect, Shockey said.

"This is a team where everyone knows their role and everyone knows what to do," he said. "I don't really like using that term (trap game). I know a lot of people do, but I just think - I don't even know if you're talking about the Atlanta game or what. I'm only talking about the San Francisco game. The Atlanta game is way too far ahead."

If the Saints win Monday night, they will start 2-0, with wins against conference opponents that could prove critical in postseason tiebreakers, and head home with a powerful wind in their sails.

But right now, they are heading on the road, not home, as defensive end Alex Brown noted.

"I don't even know what that is - who came up with that?" Brown said when asked about the dreaded 'trap game.' "Teams don't 'lose sight' of something. No. If a team goes out and loses, something happened. Either the other team was better, or they didn't prepare or something. But that's not losing sight.

"You want to go and win. You prepare to go and win. Just like this past game - everything was made up around that Minnesota game. We didn't win a playoff game. We're exactly where we wanted to be come this week - 1-and-0. And no matter how much is made of this game, we're hoping to be 2-and-0. That's it."

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James Varney can be reached at jvarney@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3386.